DES MOINES, Iowa — The federal government wants to increase production and use of a higher blend of ethanol fuel by giving financial assistance to gas stations that install more pumps for the fuel, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Friday.

Vilsack said President Barack Obama wants the Department of Agriculture to help ensure 10,000 flex-fuel pumps for E-85 are available across the country within the next five years.

E-85 is a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Current ethanol blends contain 10 percent ethanol. There are 8 million flexible-fuel vehicles currently on the nation’s roads and 2,300 stations where people can get E-85, Vilsack said.

“The president was pretty clear that he wants to reduce our nation’s net dependence on foreign oil by one-third by 2025,” Vilsack told The Associated Press. “One way to do that is to increase production and increase use of renewable biofuels.” He said the government will use funds from the Rural Energy for American Program to provide financial assistance to gas station owners who install E-85 pumps. The assistance would be through grants and guaranteed loans, he said.

He said the program will help the U.S. in its effort to achieve the goal of producing 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022. The nation currently produces about 13 billion gallons, Vilsack said.

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